


my head's under water but i'm breathing fine

by Homeistheimpala



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Fluff, M/M, The Hale Family, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 19:45:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1400224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Homeistheimpala/pseuds/Homeistheimpala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A game changer appears in the form of Isaac, who is behind the counter, busy at work making coffee and calling out names.<br/>“Bruce!” Isaac calls out.<br/>“Wayne!” Stiles calls back, grinning, just as a voice says, “Banner.” at the same time.<br/>Stiles looks up in surprise. He is at least 70% sure the voice had come from Mr. Hottie but he isn’t completely sure so he narrows his eyes at him.<br/>“Marvel.” Stiles says, trying not to let his eyes waver from the steady green gaze. He doesn’t know why he even said that, it’s not like he actually feels any hostility towards Marvel.<br/>“DC.” Mr. Hottie says, rolling his eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	my head's under water but i'm breathing fine

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Mention of attempted suicide.  
> The word 'Fuckface' is used a bit.  
> Unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own.

Stiles is trying not to stare. His parents taught him manners after all. Mr. Hottie (because Stiles was unoriginal like that) is sitting a booth away from him, facing Stiles but immersed in his laptop. Stiles almost wants to ask the man to face away because he is really distracting but then again, manners. He’d said that to Lydia once and she’d glared at him until he moved away.

Stiles goes back to his essay- or at least tries to. But he can hardly handle writing a psychosis on a serial killer while sneaking glances at Mr. Hottie.

A part of him wants to go over and start a conversation- Stiles has never been one to shy away from talking. However, another part of him simply wants to enjoy the view. A beautiful view never hurt anyone. Probably.

A game changer appears in the form of Isaac, who is behind the counter, busy at work making coffee and calling out names.

“Bruce!” Isaac calls out.

“Wayne!” Stiles calls back, grinning, just as a voice says, “Banner.” at the same time.

Stiles looks up in surprise. He is at least 70% sure the voice had come from Mr. Hottie but he isn’t completely sure so he narrows his eyes at him.

“Marvel.” Stiles says, trying not to let his eyes waver from the steady green gaze. He doesn’t know why he even said that, it’s not like he actually feels any hostility towards Marvel.

“DC.” Mr. Hottie says, rolling his eyes.

Stiles simply narrows his eyes more in response and after a moment, Mr. Hottie huffs and diverts his attention back to his laptop.

Stiles continues to stare at him and only looks away when a hint of a smile appeared on the man’s face as he looks up and raises an eyebrow at him.

Stiles turns back to his laptop and continues reading about the dumb ways serial killers get caught.

He doesn’t notice when someone sits opposite him in his booth until the man speaks.

“What do you have against Marvel anyway?” Stiles looks up to see Hottie’s eyebrow raised inquisitively at him.

“I have nothing against people, why is Marvel so dumb?” Stiles blurts out. Hottie’s other eyebrow joins the first one.

“Sorry, word vomit, I _meant_ , I have nothing against Marvel and why are people so dumb? Sorry, thought trainwreck, I was thinking about something and you asked me something so my brain started thinking about that instead and- you get it.” Stiles says, a blush rising to his cheeks.

“What was with the staring at me like a criminal?” Hottie said, grinning slightly.

“Criminally _hot_ , more like. Oh, my god, _sorry_ , I didn’t mean to objectify you, you’re obviously more than your looks and your bad taste in comics.” Stile says, trying to control his brain.

“You think Batman is better than the Hulk?” Hottie asks and Stiles isn’t sure why Derek is still talking to him after experiencing the Stilinski word vomit.

“Personal preference. It’s cool if you like the Hulk, I mean, Banner is pretty cool too. I was just surprised when someone said ‘Bruce’, you though ‘Banner’ instead of ‘Wayne’, I mean, seriously. I didn’t mean to come off as hostile.” Stile says after a moment. Hottie stares at him for a moment before smiling.

“Well said.” A softness to his face told Stiles that Hottie didn’t mean to be offensive.

“Oh, fuck you.” Stiles says, sticking his tongue out. Hottie laughs and it’s music to his ears.

“Derek Hale.” he says, holding out his hand.

“Stiles Stilinski.” Stiles shakes his hand. Derek nods, as though it’s a perfectly normal name. “You from around here?”

“Not exactly. I just moved here actually.”

“Cool. I could show you around sometime, if you’d like?” Stiles says, blowing into his coffee.

“Yeah. That’d be nice. Thanks.”

“Stilinski!” Isaac’s voice is higher than it needs to be. Stiles turns to glare at him and Isaac just points outside. Stiles looks out the window to see Scott honking his horn to a rhythm.

Stiles checks his phone and the **Scoot McCool (4) missed calls** makes him feel slightly guilty.

Stiles smiles at Derek and writes his number down on a napkin.

“Here.” he says, pushing the napkin towards him. “Call me, we’ll set something up?”

Derek nods slowly but Stiles doesn’t have time to look into the action as Isaac bellows out his name again.

*

Derek stares at the number for a while before whipping out his phone.

 **To: Fuckface**  
Human interaction successful.

When his phone alerts him of three consecutive text messages, he smiles to himself and takes a moment before responding.

 **From: Fuckface**  
whAT

 **From: Fuckface**  
I need more details, asshole

 **From: Fuckface**  
Is he bootylicious? :D:D

Dere shakes his head.

 **To: Fuckface**  
Fuck you :D:D

 **To: Fuckface**  
Yes.

 **From: Fuckface**  
Derek Michelle Hale, you answer me and answer me well.

Derek smiles and decides to text Stiles instead.

 **To: Human I Am Interacting With**  
Why are people dumb anyway?

 **From: Human I Am Interacting With**  
omg so this guy got caught cause he tattoo’d the fucking crime scene on his chest. like, for real, bro?

Derek doesn’t know how to respond to that and he’s not sure he can convey his expression of grinning like a maniac through text. However, Stiles rescues him from that particular dilemma by texting him.

 **From: Human I Am Interacting With**  
yo so im free tomorrow afternoon if you wanna check some places out?

 **To: Human I Am Interacting With**  
Tomorrow afternoon is good.

 **From: Human I Am Interacting With**  
Kay, 12:30 ish, cool?

 **To: Human I Am Interacting With**  
Yeah, cool.

He considers it for a moment before going ahead with it. He screenshots the messages and send them to Laura.

He receives a Snapchat in return. It’s 6 seconds of Laura moving her camera and screaming with the caption I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!

 **From: Fuckface**  
That’s all the exclamation marks that would fit but

 **From: Fuckface**  
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Derek smiles and goes back to his writing.

*

Stiles shows Derek his favourite ice cream shop.

“Good place for a murder.” Derek says as they stand outside the shop, nodding towards the alley. Stiles stares at him before bursting out laughing.

“You’re kinda creepy, you know that? Next stop, the police department, of which my father is the Sheriff. Just saying.”

Derek licks his ice cream to hide his smile.

Derek almost says, “I’m not a murderer, I swear.” but bites it back at the last moment. He isn’t ready for that, not yet.

“I’m writing this crime story for my cousin, that’s all.” He says instead.

“That is like the cutest thing.” Stiles snickers.

“She wants a brown, female lesbian protagonist so it’s a challenge. I just call her a lot and ask her what she’d do in the situation.”

“Very cute.” Stiles shoves his shoulder against Derek and Derek doesn’t flinch away.

Laura sends him 15 messages throughout the day but Derek only replies after he’s at his apartment later at night.

*

The next time they bump into each other a couple of days later, Stiles is with Lydia. Which would normally be fine but Lydia sees Stiles staring at Derek and a grin forms on her face that makes Stiles want to carry her far far away. Derek hasn’t noticed them yet but Lydia makes her way towards him, Stiles right behind her.

“Derek Hale?” Derek startles at Lydia shoves her hand towards him. “Lydia Martin.”

Derek cautiously shakes the redhead’s hand.

“Pleasure to finally meet you.” Lydia says, sitting opposite him. “Stiles, go get our coffees.”

Stiles flails and sputters before backing away, glaring back at Lydia all the way.

“Um.” Derek looks lost and Stiles wants to reach out and pet him. “Pleasure’s all mine.”

“I’m sure it is.” Lydia smiles. “He really likes you, you know.”

“I know.” Derek says, smiling faintly.

“I did a background check on you.”

Derek wants to hide his face, bang his head against the table, run away but Lydia’s stare keeps him in place.

“I’m not judging.” Lydia says carefully. “You should tell him before long, he’ll kinda wanna know and he’ll do his own background check soon and if he doesn’t, his Dad will hand him his background check so. Yeah.”

“What’s with all the background checks?” Derek says after a pause. Lydia shrugs.

“I have a background check on almost everyone in town.”

“What do you do exactly?”

Lydia smiles sweetly at him.

“That’s classified.” Derek blinks at her and she shakes her head.

“Look, I care about him and-”

“Care about who?” Stiles interrupts. He places Lydia’s drink in front of her and smiles at Derek. Derek smiles back uncertainly.

“About you, dumbass. And how if Derek here hurts you, they’ll never even look for his body.” Lydia says cheerfully.

“Don’t worry, Derek, I’d look for your body.” Stiles says sympathetically, patting Derek’s hand.

“And you said _I’m_ creepy?” Derek said, torn between staring at Stiles hand on his, Stiles himself or Lydia’s smug smirk.

“Scary, isn’t she?” Stiles says in a mock whisper. Derek nods his head gravely but smiles at Lydia as Stiles throws his head back and laughs. Lydia smiles back at him.

*

There’s a barbecue at the McCall house a week later when the Sheriff corners him. Derek mentally prepares himself for a lot of things but not for the Sheriffs warm smile and kind eyes.

“You know, Stiles barely looks up from his phone nowadays, with all that texting.”

“We call each other occasionally too.” Derek says weakly. The Sheriff huffs out a laugh.

“Son, I just want you to know-”

“That you did a background check on me?” Derek interrupts. The Sheriff stares at him for a moment before sighing.

“Well, that too. But mainly that you will find that we Stilinski men are ridiculously open minded. You can talk to Stiles about anything. You can talk to me about anything, if that’ll help.”

Derek wasn’t sure how to respond so he let the Sheriff clap his back and watched his walk away.

“What was that?” Stiles asked, making his way to Derek. Derek shrugged and didn’t say no when Stiles asked him if he wanted to dance.

Allison and Scott joined them minutes later and Derek felt suffocated when he heard Allison’s last name. Thankfully, Lydia came to his rescue as she grabbed his hand, stood on a chair and twirled him. Stiles was leaning on Scott laughing and so was Allison and she looked nothing like Kate.

Later that night, Derek shot a text to his parents, telling them he loved them. His parents replied instantly, telling him he was their baby and they loved him, along with a lot of emoticons.

Derek fell asleep smiling.

*

Derek can’t concentrate on the movie. All he can see from the corner of his eye is graceful slope of Stiles’ neck connecting to his shoulders. He can feel Stiles fidgeting every few seconds and he could care less about Batman’s angst as he reaches forward and gently places a hand on Stiles neck.

Leaning in, he doesn’t break eye contact until Stiles’ eyes flutter shut and Stiles leans forward, pressing his lips against Derek’s.

It’s chaste until it’s not. Stiles moves his lips against his and leans forward, running his fingers through Derek’s hair. One hand is on Derek’s check, pushing him down and Derek complies. Stiles straddles him without moving his lips away. Derek’s hands settle on Stiles waist as Stiles kisses his neck. Bites, licks, leaves his mark. He pulls back.

“You know, you’re really hot like this. Not that you’re not always hot, but especially like this, I want you like this all the time, ser-” Derek cuts him off with his lips and he can feel Stiles grinning against them.

They don’t stop kissing until Jackson bursts through the door, yelling about his teams victory.

*

 **From: Fuckface**  
Derek Annabelle Hale, you have to bring him over for the weekend!!!

 **From: Fuckface**  
Mom says you have to!!!!

 **From: Mom**  
I said no such thing, come whenever you’re ready, baby.

 **From: Mom**  
SHE MEANS COME HOME THIS WEEKEND WITH UR BOYFRAAANNDDDD.

*

Stiles is hanging upside down from the couch and they’re actually watching Batman.

“Soooooo, Kate, huh?” Derek’s eyes snap to Stiles and he realizes this is it.

“Yeah. She was a thing. That happened.”

Stiles shrugged but it looked like wiggling from that angle.

“I didn’t read the background checks. I want you to tell me.”

So Derek does. About the murderer he slept with, about how he almost lost his entire family. About the guilt he carried for years, about the months in therapy.

He traces patterns into Stiles’ hand as he tells him about how he tried to kill himself after his family distanced themselves from him because they didn’t know how to handle him.

Stiles is snuggling up to him when he finishes, almost and hour later, as the credits keep rolling the background.

“I love you.” Stiles whispers, softly, into the crook of his neck. Derek’s heart skips a beat and he tightens his grip around Stiles.

“Yeah. I love you too. Yeah.”

Stiles smiles into his neck and they don’t move for a long time.

*

“Will we have time to watch Batman?” Stiles asks in the car. They’re on their way to the Hale residence.

“Yeah, we have Friday to ourselves.” Derek says. Stiles reclines his chair back.

“Cool.” he says.

They pull over at a mansion an hour later.

“Wow.” Stiles says. Derek smiles at him and gets out of the car. Laura is on him before he’s completely out.

“Derek Alice Hale, I missed you!” Laura says, hugging him tight.

“Your middle name is Alice?” Stiles asks from behind him, trying not to giggle.

“No, no, it’s not. Laura, get off me.” Derek grunts.

“No.” Laura rubs her cheek against his. He can hear a camera shutter behind him and yeah, he’s gonna kill Stiles later.

He could hear screams coming closer.

“Deeerreeeeekkkkkk.”

“Oh, shit.” Laura moves away from him just as two little boys launch themselves at him. He falls to the ground.

“Oh, my god, David, control your pups!” Derek yells as the two boys bounce on his chest.

“Nope.” David says, leaning against the door.

“Stiles. Help.” Derek calls out.

“Nope.” Stiles says, going to stand with David. They talk as Derek finally manages to sit up.

“Come on, lets go inside.” Laura says, picking up one of the boys. The other jumps of Derek and attached himself to Laura’s leg.

Stiles makes his way to Derek and pulls him up.

“You okay?” he asks, putting an arm around his waist. Derek places an arm around Stiles’s shoulder. He presses a kiss on Stiles head.

“Never been better.”


End file.
